Woven adhesive fastener portions may have the warp, weft, and functional filaments of textile fibers and of plastic or metal fibers, and are readily available on the market in a plurality of embodiments. The functional filaments form loop-like hooking elements in the base fabric of warp and weft filaments, if they are made of multifilament threads. If the functional filaments are of monofilament threads and if the respective closed loops are cut open or separated from each other by thermal means, fastener hooks are obtained which may be engaged with a correspondingly configured fleece loop material of another fastening element. If in the separating process the free loop ends are subjected to heat treatment, for example, if they are melted open, mushroom-shaped fastener heads are obtained as fastening elements as a result of the inherent behavior of the plastic material. The possibility also exists of engaging hook-shaped or mushroom-shaped fastener portions with felt-like adhesive fastening elements so that the two elements may be separated.
Very good peeling resistance values can be achieved with the disclosed adhesive fastener systems, that is, relatively high forces are required to pull apart the corresponding planar adhesive fastener portions forming the adhesive fastener to discontinue or disengage the connection. However, since the fastening elements of the corresponding fastener portions assume a specific orientation relative to each other, an orientation which is regular from the statistical viewpoint, it has been found in practical applications that after an initial adherence threshold has been crossed the fastener may be easily disengaged. In the respective common orientation, the fastening elements adhering to each other readily slide apart and break the connection.
To counter this problem U.S. Pat. No. 5,040,275 proposes, for a cast adhesive fastener portion, that the fastening elements be configured in sinusoidal paths. Each fastening element has a U-shaped hooked pair provided at its free ends with a mushroom head. In addition, spacing is maintained transversely to the sinusoidal path between the U-shaped fastening elements positioned transversely thereto so that the fastener heads may withdraw into the respective clear space. A suitably configured fastening element may then be received and engaged as free of resistance as possible in formation of the adhesive fastener, for example, also one in the form of a mushroom-shaped hook configuration. As a result of the sinusoidal path in the cast fastener, in which the U-shaped hook elements are cast in a base-matrix material, the rapid slipping off during opening of the fastener in a direction of stripping is prevented. The respective sine wave forces force yielding of the corresponding fastener hook introduced, and results in an obstruction, and accordingly, in an increase in the peeling resistance values. In an improved configuration of this solution (U.S. Pat. No. 6,076,238), the hooking pattern with the fastening elements may be configured “chaotically” in predetermined model patterns, that is, such that the fastening elements are arranged on the base fabric as randomly as possible to achieve an effect comparable to that obtained with the sinusoidal configuration. However, the respective cast plastic fastener cannot be produced as fabric with warp and weft filaments. Also, production of this disclosed fastener is complex and cost-intensive.